Making China Figurines Comment

" thanks for the Info"

by Jason
(UK)

Making China Figurines Comment - "thanks for the Info":- Hi Peter & the team, Thanks for the info, I had no idea that the big china producers had gone in to receivership and am even more shocked to here that the figurines are not even cast in the UK!!

I support your decision to distance yourself from these companies now, I think the fact that the work is carried out in the Far East is and absolute con, people buy these figurines on the basis of their heritage and under the perception that they are produced here in the UK, particularly in the case of Worcester.

I have just returned to full time education at the age of 32 and am currently doing an art and design access course, after next week we finish our varied discipline study’s and I start my specialist subject which is ceramics and 3D. My intention is to go on to do a fine art degree course focusing on sculpture.

I have found your website very useful and informative and although the traditional Worcester, Doulton style figurines are not really my thing, I think your work is amazing and the level of detail of your figurines awe inspiring. If I could obtain even half of your technical ability I would be a happy man. I am told that I have a natural ability and have had my first submission piece for college put on display in the lobby, after some persuasion from my tutor, but I am by no means pleased with the work. I seem to have no shortage of ideas and at present, even though I have a clear picture in my mind, the finished works never quite turn out as I have imagined them. hopefully as this course and then the degree course progresses, the gap between what I imagine and what I actually create should become much smaller, I long for the day when I can be proud of my work and pleased with the whole piece, instead of just being pleased with the idea of the piece and elements of it. Maybe all artists think this way and I will never be completely happy with my work!!

I have purchased the tools from your website and they have arrived today, Thankyou. The quality seems much better than that which I have seen in my local suppliers, the ribbons are sharper and the serrated tool I have not even seen anywhere else and should prove very useful, the wire of one of the wire tools is also much thinner than I have seen which should aid getting a bite into leathery clay and enable much finer control.

I look forward to receiving more news on your venture with John Bromley and wish you the best of luck, who knows, maybe in a few years I may even get to do some work under commission from 'The Figurine Collective', Imagine that!!!

Kind regards,

Jason.

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Reply by Peter H

To China Figurines - New Site - thanks for the Info

Hi Jason.

First, thanks for your kind words - much appreciated by all of us.

With regard to your course, good luck with it and think of our need for a contemporary setting for our bone china manufacture. We want to get to a situation where the esteemed and valuable unbroken 259 year old bone china production skills are design oriented, not production lead.

We ourselves, in our own humble way, are entering the second phase of really taking the bone china figurine medium to a new level.

We like our beautiful traditional lady figurines, but our first phase was to make sure we are approaching the sculpt and design of them from contemporary perspective.

For example, in the past 3 years my sculpts have moved on from the historical crinoline type handwriting to working with designs and concepts from leading fashion designers like Basia Zaraycka who is frequently on the front cover of Vogue and Elle. Basia's shop in Sloane Square is a homage to the contemporary baroque.

Where I want to be is post-minimalist 21st century contemporary, romantic baroque. Remember low-end retailers Ikea screaming "chuck out the chintz?". Well, here's the breaking news we all already know....

"Chintz is IN again (of course) as we are now in a post-minimal period which will probably last 10 years or more. The new movement will always have to be re-worked in a new and fresh way though.

For example, my new piece 'Rose Garden' pays homage to fantastic contemporary designer Amelia Casablanca (in that post-minimalist baroque corridor).

Unlike Zaraycka and Emanuel, I have never met her, I just want to pay tribute to her.

On the back of some filming & permanent exhibition work with Sunderland University we plan to commission a contemporary ceramics competition which we will be inviting all interested parties to enter. Details to follow.

..But meantime remember this..... we want to really get a 'fashion-forward' movement going - to express exactly what we can be doing, in a contemporary sense, with the beautiful traditional English bone china skills we have.

It doesn't necessarily have to be figurative, but like the paintings of Gustav Klimt did in the Art Nouveau period, could merge abstract with figurative - or be purely abstract, or purely figurative like my work.

We are interested in exciting use of the media and have some very stunningly original ideas in the pipeline ourselves working alongside Basia Zaraycka.

A competition or other contemporary projects could be an exciting opportunity to move forward and would be good PR for all.

So we need younger heads like yourself to set the scene and leave a trail. Never be backwards in coming forwards and contact us anytime at all.

Best regards,

Peter Holland